PNG has a chronic shortage of suitably experienced and qualified seafarers, especially higher-ranking officers. The current shortfall is estimated at 30 percent and is predicted to worsen as vessel traffic increases to meet the logistics requirements of the imminent Papua LNG construction phase.
The shortage of seafarers in PNG is both a ‘supply’ and a ‘demand’ problem. In terms of supply, not only is PNG not training and developing as many seafarers as the country requires, but a substantial number of its older, experienced seafarers have retired. Additionally, some of PNG’s very best seafaring professionals have secured employment with international maritime operations, further draining the available pool of qualified seafarers.
The demand for PNG seafarers has grown because of the increase in vessels required to service PNG’s communities and businesses, especially its major resource developers. More crew are needed to operate the larger volume of vessels and demand will peak in the next couple of years given that sea and river transport is the primary freight mode for the construction phase of the Total led Papua LNG project. Strong demand will continue beyond this peak given further developments on the horizon such as the Wafi-Golpu gold mine in the country’s north and expansion of the P’nyang LNG project.
The Papua LNG development is the first maritime-supported resource development of its scale since the construction of the Ok Tedi mine in the 1980’s. The equivalent development of the PNG LNG project’s facilities required a land transport fleet of more than 600 trucks to deliver over 26,000 loads of cargo.
The current 30 percent shortfall of adequately qualified and experienced seafarers will likely grow to around 50 percent as the number of vessels servicing the Papua LNG construction phase increases.
It's not just senior officers that PNG lacks but seafarers with specific technical skillsets such as those required for vessels that service the nation’s growing oil and gas sector. Offshore vessels currently being contracted to LNG projects (and potentially in the future to offshore projects such as Twinza’s Pasca A in the Gulf of Papua) are required to comply with the stringent operational requirements of the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF). Compliance for PNG operators will be increasingly challenging without appropriately skilled crew.
The training and development of PNG seafarers for the oil and gas sector is currently limited by the absence of specific technical training programmes– both theoretical and practical. No PNG institution offers the necessary course work and very few (if any) offshore operators provide crucial ‘at sea’ training to PNG’s young seafarers.
Given that PNG shippers need seafarers who have specialist technical skills in order to win contracts with oil and gas companies; and oil and gas companies in turn need shipping services, it makes sense that shippers and developers work together to grow and upskill the required workforce.
